Nisha Chittal on Why Ambition is Not a Dirty Word

When you watch a show like Mad Men (or even period piece copycats Playboy Club and PanAm), female ambition is carefully shrouded in corsets and pin curls. Five decades later, millennials like Nisha and me are not interested in shrouding or limiting our ambitions to paraprofessional roles. Our generation is not just interested in advancement or a seat at the table. Rather, we are interested in the “power seat” (to borrow a phrase from More Seats interviewee Cindy Gallop), at the head of the table.

What I believe comes through when you read Nisha’s answers is a sense that her perspective and approach are the embodiment of the ambition-forward future that we, as women, have always known we’ve wanted. Game on.

NC: The wonderful thing about working with women is how open they are to helping younger women succeed. I’ve had a couple of terrific editors like Patricia Murphy and Rachel Sklar who have given me both great feedback on my writing and great career advice.

Women in tech and media, I’ve found, are very supportive and encouraging of each other - projects like Lady Journos orChange the Ratio are dedicated solely to promoting the work of talented women in their industry and helping each other get ahead and get more credit and recognition for their work.